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Trump son tweet connects shooting to NYC ‘Julius Caesar’ play

“However, no NEA funds have been awarded to support this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production of “Julius Caesar” and there are no NEA funds supporting the New York State Council on the Arts’ grant to Public Theater or its performances”, the statement read.For the record, we still don’t know anything about the shooter, and whether it turns out to be politically motivated or not and whatever his politics, shooting people is a bad thing.Newt Gingrich said Monday that comedian Kathy Griffin’s controversial photo shoot and Shakespeare in the Park’s production of “Julius Caesar” had “set the tone” for what he considers a biased special counsel team now investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian Federation.Meanwhile, the National Endowment for the Arts was pulled into the fracas, and released its own statement that it had nothing to do with the Public Theater’s production. According to the magazine, the NY Public Teahter received almost 30 million in public funds since 2009.”[Dropping your support] sends the wrong message”, Stringer insisted in his letters to the companies that included copies of the play, according to Breitbart.Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled their sponsorship of the play Sunday.The first is that the level of offense on offer is very contextually dependent, and people who know the play – or go to see it – very quickly understand that the assassination is meant to reflect a tragedy, not something to be gleeful about.In addition to that, as a journalist named Isaac Butler pointed out, this is not the first time a theater production has featured a sitting US president in its adaptation of “Julius Caesar“. The controversy has built quickly over the past few days, demanding answers to questions about free speech, political art, and donor-grantee relations. When, in Act I, Casca sneers about the ruler’s popularity with the masses, “If Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less, ‘ director Oskar Eustis has added the words ‘on Fifth Avenue'”.I suppose corporations expressing their displeasure by withdrawing financial support could be compared with the average person protesting by not attending a production – even this one, which is offered free. The famous 1937 production of Julius Caesar directed by the 22-year-old Orson Welles featured a Caesar modeled on Benito Mussolini.Shakespeare in the Park costs about $3 million a year to run; the Public would not specify where that money comes from, but Bank of America has been the program’s “lead corporate sponsor” for the last 11 years. Both Detla Airlines and Bank of America have withdrawn their sponsorship of the Public Theater in the fallout. It noted its staging has “provoked heated discussion” but “such discussion is exactly the goal of our civically-engaged theater; this discourse is the basis of a healthy democracy”. “Julius Caesar is about how fragile democracy is”. “Companies make these decisions [to drop sponsorships] because it seems like an easy solution to a PR problem, but I think it’s important for people on the other side to stand up and say, ‘Hey, we’re here too and we’re also your customers and we care about these things'”.New York Public Radio News Editor and Theatre Critic Jennifer Vanasco wrote that the controversy was much ado about nothing. Trump’s eldest son, in particular, expressed his disdain for the portrayal as it may be perceived as an endorsement of violence.